Very nice essay by Chris Hitchens on George Orwell. Looks like a foreword from his forthcoming book on the same subject.

No easy fix for protecting kids from porn sites
“NYT” article, May 3 2002.

One of the most thorough reports ever produced on protecting children from Internet pornography has concluded that neither tougher laws nor new technology alone can solve the problem.

“Though some might wish otherwise, no single approach — technical, legal, economic or educational — will be sufficient,” wrote the authors of the report, “Youth, Pornography and the Internet,” issued yesterday by the National Research Council. “Rather, an effective framework for protecting our children from inappropriate materials and experiences on the Internet will require a balanced composite of all of these elements.”

Lots of good stuff and common sense here. For example…

The report compared the problem of protecting children from online risks to dealing with a more mundane hazard of daily life. “Swimming pools can be dangerous for children,” the authors wrote. “To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences and deploy pool alarms. All of these measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that one can do for one’s children is to teach them to swim.”

Very interesting interview with Caspar Bowden of the FIPR on the growth and futility of Internet surveillance.